Investing in operating theaters to cope with growth

Given the increase in the number of surgical procedures, the management of Hospital CHU Tivoli wanted to verify that building new operating theaters was the right decision.

Strategic challenge

Given the increase in the number of surgical procedures, the management of the Tivoli University Hospital wanted to verify that building new operating theaters was the right decision. For this purpose, Möbius was tasked with checking the financial aspect (cost and profitability) and the organizational aspect (increased efficiency) of this plan.

Approach

The team started by analyzing the hospital’s current operations, combining two approaches: A qualitative and organizational approach on the one hand consisting of interviews with key stakeholders, field visits and comparisons with best practices in other operating theaters. A qualitative approach on the other hand consisting of a benchmark that compared the hospital’s occupancy rate with that of eight other hospitals.

Möbius then analyzed the impact of specific cases: to invest, to not invest, to adapt the organization or a combination of all of the above. To this end, a forecast was made of the evolution of the hospital’s surgery wing until 2020. The team developed a dynamic model, combining capacity and financial projections, designed for autonomous use by the Tivoli University Hospital itself in the future. The cost of adapting time slots and the implementation of various organisational improvements that were a priority were also calculated to increase the current operating wing’s efficiency.

Result

Based on the calculations of the dynamic model and the organizational improvements that were outlined, Möbius proposed a specific response with precise organizational arguments, backed up by figures.

To support the implementation of its final choice, the hospital’s management had the following tools at its disposal:

A comparison, backed up by figures, of the operating wing’s operations, with eight other hospitals.

A detailed and specific profit and loss account for the operating wing.

A dynamic tool for calculating the impact of the increase in surgical procedure on the financial results of the operating wing.

The organizational improvements that were a priority were identified, the results to be achieved were formulated in detail along with a realistic and detailed implementation plan.

A more comprehensive list of organizational improvements to be implemented in the operating wing.

Möbius met our expectations thanks to their expertise, while respecting our very tight timing. In addition to analyzing our investment demand in an objective and quantified manner, they suggested relevant organizational changes. These were faithful to the needs of the participants in the operating room, who were well involved in the process.